RT7 Rogue Trader Mercenaries: “Sarge” Rockhard (1987)

RT7 Rogue Trader Mercenaries "Sarge" Rockhard,1987, Oldhammer

I’ve decided with the new painting regime that it’s time to start sprinkling in some of those models that I’ve been sitting on, unpainted and unused for the past 30-ofdd years. Sure, I have no particular gaming use for a lot of them, but that’s not really going to be the point. This guy is from the RT7 Mercenaries range, that was kinda-sorta rolled into the Imperial Army range a little later. Or at least GW of the day decided that the Army was a fine place to use many of these models if you’d bought them.

RT7 Rogue Trader Mercenaries "Sarge" Rockhard,1987, Oldhammer

This model really has two notable things to him as far as I can see – firstly his name sounds like he should be a male porn performer. Secondly, he shares his clothing and gear style with the Chainsaw Warrior(s) from this era of GW’s more eclectic game output, shortly before they moved into the All Warhammer, All The Time mode that was their situation for many years.

RT7 Rogue Trader Mercenaries "Sarge" Rockhard,1987, Oldhammer

Initially, I’d more-or-less finished the model with plain dark green fatigues – very similarly to how he was originally painted in the old catalogues, so long ago. But… no. It looked good, but a little boring. I wanted this old model to have something more interesting to him. So I went for some camo that brings him a little (or a lot) further into the current era. Can anyone pick what it’s meant to be? I also decided to make sure that everyone around him would know his rank, if not his name. I’m much happier with him now – a nice combination of old and new.

RT7 Rogue Trader Mercenaries "Sarge" Rockhard,1987, Oldhammer

And now, as I seem to write so often here – he’s done! Despite being in a box barely-started for well over a decade (he was another with green railroad flock on his base) and then sitting on my desk, ignored for a year or three – he was actually both fun and easy to paint. So that means more of this sort of thing. At least one more in each forthcoming tray. Until I get bored of them again, at least – but then, most of these old Mecenaries, Adventurers and Pirates were at least somewhat unique models, so it should help to sustain my interest.

D&D Monster Manual 17: Castle Ravenloft Vampire Count Strahd

Castle Ravenloft Vampire Count Strahd, Dungeons and Dragons D&D miniatures.

Another boardgame boy today – it’s the Big Bad …brains of the Castle Ravenloft boardgame – Count Strahd. Why does it seem like he should be called “Count Baron Von Strahd?” for some reason? This one wasn’t even started. I found him on the previous mess of a painting table primed, and that was it. He must have been like that for …well, getting towards 8 or 10 years to be quite honest. It was actually a bit tricky coming up with colours for him. In the end, I just went with colours based on the Undead Army that I put a lot of work into a few years ago. Because it uses a pretty generic scheme that works for undead, and also why not and good enough. He can theoretically be used in that force as well, but let’s face it – I have cooler Vampire models to use in a wargame! (I think that’s why I must have not even started on this model – I’ve got better models to use in Ravenloft!

Castle Ravenloft Vampire Count Strahd, Dungeons and Dragons D&D miniatures.

Strahd isn’t an especially inspiring model, but I guess as a boardgame miniature from 2010 – or possibly earlier than that, given that many if not all of the D&D Boardgame minis from that era were repurposed from the D20 prepaints that preceded them – he works well enough. Certainly there’s no reason to hold him to the same standard that Not-Red-Valeria-Viking-Sonja should be. Also – oops! I forgot to do a couple of the lumps on his back-scabbard with a gemstone paint. Rest assured, that I’ll get right on that!

Most importantly, as the Junkyard Dog (and ONLY the JYD) would say… another one bites the dust!